French move to axe Syria arms embargo

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius suggested that a key EU meeting on the arms embargo on Syria could be brought forward.

“We need to convince our partners, particularly in Europe, that we no longer have a choice but to lift the arms embargo in favour of the (rebel) coalition,” he wrote in French newspaper Liberation today.

Later in a radio interview, he suggested that Britain and France wanted a meeting of foreign ministers, due to discuss the EU arms embargo in May, to be brought forward — possibly to the end of this month.

He told France Info that the two countries are asking “the Europeans now to lift the embargo so that the resistance fighters have the possibility of defending themselves”. If unanimous EU support for lifting the measure is lacking, the French and British governments will decide to deliver weapons, Mr Fabius added. “We along with the British will ask for the meeting to be moved up.”

Foreign Office sources said that Britain was not actively pushing for such a change in the timetable.

Britain led negotiations to amend the arms ban to allow the supply of armoured vehicles and body armour to the rebels. An estimated 70,000 people have died in the two-year civil war in Syria.